Fazle Kabir - Bank Governor

Fazle Kabir started his professional career in 1980 in the Railway Transportation and Commercial cadre of Bangladesh Civil Service. In 1983, he joined the BCS Administration cadre. During his 34 years of civil service, Kabir held various key positions in different ministries and also in the field administration. Prior to joining , Fazle Kabir was holding the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sonali Bank Limited. Born in 1955, Fazle Kabir studied at Faujdarhat Cadet College for his secondary and higher secondary education, followed by his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Department of Economics of the University of Chittagong where he obtained his B.A.(Honours) and M.A. degree. In his professional career, he was a resource person in the subjects of Public Finance Management, Public Expenditure Management, Debt Management and other issues at many training institutions including National Defense College, BPATC, National Academy for Planning and Development, BCS Administration Academy, Police Staff College and National Institute of Mass Communication.

Atiur Rahman - Bangladesh Bank Former Governor

Dr. is a Bangladeshi economist, writer and banker. He served as the 10th Governor of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh. Currently de has been serving as Professor of the Dept. of Development Studies, University. He is a world renowned economist known for his innovative work in the fields of financial inclusion, pro-poor development and agricultural sector development. He has also been called "the banker of the poor" for his contribution in developing the Bangladeshi economy.

Abdullah Saqib – Viamo

Country Manager

Mr Abdullah Saqib is currently spearheading Viamo’s efforts in Pakistan and Bangladesh as Country Manager focused on helping international nonprofits strengthen their interventions by leveraging mobile technology. In his previous role at Acumen, he focused on developing global investment strategies across Latin America, Africa and South Asia to enhance poverty alleviation outcomes by addressing issues concerning productivity, income volatility and climate change. During his tenure at Telenor Pakistan, Abdullah designed and launched innovative value-driven information and financial services for rural masses across health, education and agriculture sectors. His work in mobile agriculture received global recognition and convinced the organization to set up a dedicated department focused on initiatives for Pakistan’s agricultural ecosystem. He is a firm believer of knowledge sharing and has served as a mentor at the MIT D-Lab for enhancement of investment readiness of startups ranging from diverse backgrounds (Latin America and Africa) and focus areas (FinTech, Education, Health, Energy, etc.). Moreover, he has also supported Duke University in curriculum design for social enterprises around the world.

Abul Basar – Bangladesh Bank General Manager, Financial Inclusion Department

Arfan Ali - Bank Asia President & Managing Director

An MBA from The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Dhaka University, Md. Arfan Ali is currently holding President & Managing Director. He joined Bank Asia as an AVP on September 13, 1999, three months before the commercial opening of the bank. During the initial years at the Bank, Md. Arfan Ali was in charge of the Treasury Department. Subsequent to that, he was the Head of two of the major Bank Asia branches namely: Principal Office Branch and MCB Banani Branch. Arfan Ali started his career as a Probationary Officer in Arab Bangladesh Bank Limited on May 02, 1991. Prior to joining Bank Asia, he worked for Hanil Bank (now Woori Bank) of South Korea from 1996 to 1999. Apart from working for the Bank, Md. Arfan Ali worked as a Part Time Lecturer for Jahangir Nagar University, MBA Department for six years. He is one of the key resource persons for Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), Dhaka. Md. Arfan Ali is actively involved in enhancement of formal and informal education for the village people.

Debbie Watkins - Fern Singapore Managing Director, APMEA

Ms Debbie Watkins has over 20 years of experience in technology for finance, mobile-enabled products and services, business and strategy consulting and management. She has led customer-centric market research and product development engagements; supported clients in technology platform needs assessment and implementation; built multi- disciplinary and multi-cultural teams in a number of countries; and acted as Project Director for a number of long-term multi-million dollar mobile money and financial services solution implementations. She lived in Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Singapore for a total of 14 years, and worked in 20 additional countries throughout Africa and Asia. Her career in the UK included Operations Director for an ERP solutions provider and Head of Deployment for a commercial bank- enabled smart card-based electronic cash service.

Ferry Sipahutar - Bank BTN Indonesia Head of Retail Funding & Services Division

Mr. Ferry Sipahutar is currently looked after the Bank’s retail funding and services business since August 2018. He has over 20 years of experience in the Banking Sector, primarily in the area of product development, business functions and distribution networks. After his return from the Master Program in Lexington USA in 2004, he has joined and contributed to several projects at the Bank’s program such as the initial development of Mortgage Securitization program, the integration technology platform of bank’s saving account product through Indonesia Postal Office Networks and the implementation of ISO 9001:2015 for Bank’s contact center services During his tenure in Marketing Division in 2010 -2011, Mr Ferry and his team were involved in WSBI project initiative to “Doubling the number of savings accounts in the hands of the poor” by introducing a Card Based Saving Account for the Poor project in Cental Java, Indonesia.

Mustafa K. Mujeri - Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development (InM) Executive Director

Dr. Mustafa K. Mujeri joined InM as the Executive Director on January 01, 2016. Before joining InM he served as the Director General of BIDS since April 2009. He was the Chief Economist of the Bangladesh Bank (the country’s central bank). During his professional career, he also served as the Poverty Monitoring and Analysis Advisor of UNDP in Cambodia; Project Leader of the IDRC’s Programme of Micro Impact of Macroeconomic and Adjustment Policies (MIMAP) in Bangladesh; Director Research of the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP); Visiting Faculty at the Department of Economics, University of Queensland, Brisbane; National Expert in the Bangladesh Planning Commission; and Associate Professor of Economics, Rajshahi University. Dr. Mujeri obtained Ph.D. in Economics from McMaster University in Canada in 1978 after his graduation from Rajshahi University in 1970.

Nageswara Rao Desu - NABARD General Manager

Rao Desu presently working as General Manager in the Department of Financial Inclusion and Banking Technology in NABARD Head Office, Mumbai, is working on reducing the gaps in the payment and acceptance infrastructure in the banking sector through various technology interventions as well as spreading financial literacy in India. He was on the Board of Sri Vishakha Gramin Bank, a Regional Rural Bank, as a Director. He is a member of ‘Committee on Index on Finance Inclusion’ set up for creating financial inclusion index for India by Government of India. He has many papers to his credit on subjects like corporate Governance in cooperative banks, Conduct of inspections under CBS environment, Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana, Financial Inclusion strategies for Arunachal Pradesh, leveraging on technology in cooperative banks etc., which were presented in various national and international seminars and published. He worked in the areas of Information Technology, Institutional Development, Micro Credit and Financial Inclusion. He did his M.Com. from Andhra University. As District Development Manager in Srikakulam District of Andhra Pradesh, he worked for including the entire poor population of the district into Self Help Groups (SHGs) in a saturation mode and also worked towards Watershed Development under Natural Resource Management, tribal development under ‘Wadi’ programmes. He also worked as a Faculty Member in the subjects of Financial Inclusion, Micro Finance, Information Technology, Project Management at Bankers Institute of Rural Development (BIRD), Lucknow and NABARD Staff College NBSC, Lucknow, India. He also provided consultancy on Financial Management and Management Information Systems for cooperative banks.

Sarder Akhter Hamed - Bank Asia Ltd. Head of Channel Banking

Mr. Sarder Akhter Hamed started his career as a trade marketer working for largest FMCG product marketing and distribution company (BATB) of the country that offered him an opportunity to get the exposure of working in many geographies of Bangladesh. Throughout his career, he showed an expertise on developing packaging of financial products for individual lending and deposit consumer covering SME, Retail and Agricultural sector. The experience enables him to take the challenge for driving financial inclusion through Bank Asia Agent Banking supported by materializing the strategic partnership with development partners like Government Ministries, UNDP, USAID, UKAID, DFID in terms of innovation and digitization of the financial service facilities.

Serajul Islam - ERA-InfoTech LTD Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Md. Serajul islam has completed Diploma from IBB & he is also Fellow of Cost & Management Accountants. He has started his career as Financial Analyst at Sonali Bank in 1995. As a CEO of ERA-InfoTech Ltd, he is Supervising the whole activities of the company like Planning, Directing, Monitoring, Marketing, Controlling and Budgeting. Collaborates with the board to define and articulate the organization’s vision and to develop strategies for achieving that vision. Creates annual operating plans that support strategic direction set by the board and correlate with annual operating budgets; develops and monitors strategies for ensuring the long-term financial viability of the organization. Develops future leadership within the organization. He was the First Vice President of Bank Asia Limited having 16 years’ Experience in Banking Profession. Syed Abdul Momen - BRAC Bank Head of SME Banking

Mr. Syed Abdul Momen took over as the Head of SME Banking on July 13, 2017. Syed Abdul Momen joined BRAC Bank in August 2005. He has 13 years of multifaceted experience in the Banking Sector primarily concentrating in Technology, Operations and Business Functions. During the first 2 years in BRAC Bank, he restructured technology infrastructure and played a crucial role in the Core Banking Platform migration. In August 2007, Momen was posted in BRAC Afghanistan Bank as Chief Operating Officer (COO) on a 2 year secondment. During his tenure in Afghanistan, he looked after the bank's SME Business & expanded bank's network in three provinces. He has also contributed in the development of SME Banking Policies & Guidelines of Central Bank of Afghanistan. After his return from Afghanistan in 2009, he joined BRAC Bank’s SME Division and ran a special collection project, which was portfolio’s prime concern. After successfully driving the countrywide collection initiative, he was appointed as the Head of Small Business in July 2010 and since then he is leading the industry’s largest small business portfolio. His team was awarded Chairman's Excellence Award in 2012 for extraordinary business achievement. Mr. Momen started his career in ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1999 where he played an instrumental role in the migration of Core Banking Platform in Middle East & South Asia region including Bangladesh, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Nepal, Sri Lanka after the acquisition of Grindlays Bank’s operation by Standard Chartered Bank. He was also instrumental in Standard Chartered Bank’s IT service delivery & business process centralization Project. Mr. Momen is a Computer Communications Graduate from Middlesex University, UK with distinction. During his 13 years of banking career, he attended numerous seminars, trainings and workshops in and out of country.

Toufic Ahmed Choudhury - Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) Director General

Dr. Toufic Ahmed Choudhury is the Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM). He is a leading economist in Bangladesh and member of the Bangladesh Economic Association. He has been holding a distinguished specialization in Banking and Financial sector and also the current Chairperson of D.Net.

Venkateswara Rao Kasturi - NABARD India Chief General Manager

Mr. Venkateswara Rao Kasturi, born on 06 February 1962 is a post- graduate from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) New Delhi in the year 1985. He had entered the Middle Management of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in 1985 and for the last 33 years working in various capacities in the same organization. Mr. Rao has professional experience in appraisal of various farm and non-farm sector, potential linked credit plans, district credit plans, area development, SHGs, JLGs, MFIs, farmers Producers Organisation and also supervision of Banks viz. RRBs and Rural Cooperative Banks. He was Chief General Manager (CGM) of Department of Supervision, looking after inspection and supervision of RRBs, DCCBs and State Cooperative Banks. He was CGM of NABARD, in Bihar and Tamil Nadu States. Presently, he is heading the Micro Credit Innovations Department (MCID), which focuses on Self Help Groups (SHGs)-Bank linkage, provision of micro credit and women empowerment, Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) and Digitization of SHGs in India. He is Director on the Sa-Dhan Board, a Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO), Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) in India. He has visited SHGs in Kenya and Combodia, studied Regulatory aspects in Indonesia and Cooperatives in Germany.

Zaki Haider - mPower Social Enterprises Ltd

Zaki Haider is a researcher from State University of New York, working on his Doctoral studies in the field of cognitive science, while acting as the Director of Innovation at mPower. Zaki has more than 10 years of international experience in innovative technology, data visualization, solution architecture, and international development.

Zaki is a licensed researcher (USA) and certified expert in human centered design methodologies (Frog Design).